Blkbny
Well-known member
Rode little over 1,000 miles on my 2010 Triumph Bonneville in 19½ hours.
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Drove the entire Highway 401 from Guelph, Ontario, West until it ends in Windsor, East until it ends at the Quebec border and West back to Guelph. First fill up at departure from Guelph at 6:23 am Saturday 14 June, gassed up in Windsor, Ontario, at 9:51 am, Riviere-Beaud, Quebec, at 7:37 pm, and final fill on arrival in Guelph at 1:42 am Sunday 15 June 2014.
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The ride was very hard on me physically, my ear canals from the earplugs, cheeks from biting them while eating by just opening the front of my helmet, knees and thighs were sore for a couple of days. My shoulders – more precisely the area between the shoulder and neck – took it the worst and are very sore still. Fingertips were numb for 3 days. Another important appendage was numb for a couple days as well:confused2: Okay now though
Credit to the Burton saddle, Hagon Road Shocks and the sheepskin from Beefy – my butt was about the only part of my anatomy that wasn’t sore. Except for the areas that were numb.
Weather was a bit chilly, 11C was the low both evenings, 21C was the daily high. Got about an hour of off and on rain around Cornwall, had to stop for about 10 minutes under an overpass to let a cloud-burst roll by. ‘Fenda Extenda’ worke well and kept my feet dry.
What made the trip physically possible was stopping every 80 kilometers at each OnRoute. Filled up the tank every other OnRoute with about 7 litres of 87 regular octane. Alternate stops were some combination of eating, drinking, urinating and cleaning the bugs off my face shield. There is one leg between OnRoutes of 160 km from Cambridge to Port Hope each way, at this point I was really, and I mean, really, ready for a break. What’s amazing is how refreshing a short 5 minute break can be - fill the tank, walk 50 feet to pay cash, record info, have a sip of water and back on the road good-to-go again.
Brought 3 apples, 6 granola bars and 2 bottle of water totaling 1.5 litres. Treated myself to a Jr. Whopper for lunch and dinner meals. Had just enough water, the apples were amazingly refreshing and the granola bars were a good reason to stop riding as well. Incurred expenses of $110 for gas and about $6 for the pair of very tasty burgers. Had ten $10 bills in an envelope ready to buy gas, a Ziploc bag was used to compile the receipts.
Packed a microfiber cloth wetted with Windex in a Ziploc bag, used it at least 4 times to clean the bugs off my face shield, thanks again to Beefy for that tip.
Bonneville ran like a champ, not one issue on the road. I tried to maintain an actual speed of 110 to 115 km/h by the GPS whenever possible. This was about 120 to 130 km/h indicated on my speedo. Gas mileage was just a little over 60 mpg (IMP) after correcting for my odometer reading about 3% high, that’s a little over 50mpg (US).
Rear tire had 3.5mm of tread on departure, 2.2 mm when measured the next day.
‘Go Cruise’ throttle control worked great, used it for about a third of the trip.
The highway pegs/bar I fabricated and attached to the bottom of my SW-Motech engine bars were not useful at all. Worse than not useful in fact, the one time I tried them a got cramps in both legs when I moved them back down to the normal position.
GPS worked fine until it lost power from hitting the ridges across the top of Toronto.
Had to tighten the chain the next day, strip her of touring luggage and tool kit, remove the highway pegs/bar, wash her up and she’s back to being my daily driver. Looks great after polishing with a microfiber cloth that has been lightly sprayed with Lemon Pledge, thanks for that tip folks.
The worst part of the trip was the stretch across the top of Toronto and Mississauga. Travelling East at midday there was about an hour of stop & go, really felt like doing some lane splitting but wasn’t sure how the locals would view it, lost some time and used a lot of stamina. Coming back at midnight the highway was packed and the flow of traffic was very fast, 120 – 130 km/h in the slow lane, and very bumpy with joints or ridges or whatever they are. Difficult to see and prepare for in the dark at speed, several literally knocked the wind out of me. There were cars and bike whizzing by and doing rapid lane changes at what seemed 100 mph.
Do it again? Probably not, even on one of the longest days of the year there was too much very dangerous night driving, perhaps if I was to have the first fill up at around 4:30 am and slide across the top of T.O. at dusk, it would have worked out better, but I felt that the extra sleep was more important.
What disappointed me somewhat was that I was looking forward to the time by myself to think about life a little, reminisce and philosophize and so on, however the ride required so much intense focus and concentration that I had almost no ‘personal’ time. Just riding my Bonneville, but that’s what the trip was really about anyway.
Drove the entire Highway 401 from Guelph, Ontario, West until it ends in Windsor, East until it ends at the Quebec border and West back to Guelph. First fill up at departure from Guelph at 6:23 am Saturday 14 June, gassed up in Windsor, Ontario, at 9:51 am, Riviere-Beaud, Quebec, at 7:37 pm, and final fill on arrival in Guelph at 1:42 am Sunday 15 June 2014.
The ride was very hard on me physically, my ear canals from the earplugs, cheeks from biting them while eating by just opening the front of my helmet, knees and thighs were sore for a couple of days. My shoulders – more precisely the area between the shoulder and neck – took it the worst and are very sore still. Fingertips were numb for 3 days. Another important appendage was numb for a couple days as well:confused2: Okay now though
Credit to the Burton saddle, Hagon Road Shocks and the sheepskin from Beefy – my butt was about the only part of my anatomy that wasn’t sore. Except for the areas that were numb.
Weather was a bit chilly, 11C was the low both evenings, 21C was the daily high. Got about an hour of off and on rain around Cornwall, had to stop for about 10 minutes under an overpass to let a cloud-burst roll by. ‘Fenda Extenda’ worke well and kept my feet dry.
What made the trip physically possible was stopping every 80 kilometers at each OnRoute. Filled up the tank every other OnRoute with about 7 litres of 87 regular octane. Alternate stops were some combination of eating, drinking, urinating and cleaning the bugs off my face shield. There is one leg between OnRoutes of 160 km from Cambridge to Port Hope each way, at this point I was really, and I mean, really, ready for a break. What’s amazing is how refreshing a short 5 minute break can be - fill the tank, walk 50 feet to pay cash, record info, have a sip of water and back on the road good-to-go again.
Brought 3 apples, 6 granola bars and 2 bottle of water totaling 1.5 litres. Treated myself to a Jr. Whopper for lunch and dinner meals. Had just enough water, the apples were amazingly refreshing and the granola bars were a good reason to stop riding as well. Incurred expenses of $110 for gas and about $6 for the pair of very tasty burgers. Had ten $10 bills in an envelope ready to buy gas, a Ziploc bag was used to compile the receipts.
Packed a microfiber cloth wetted with Windex in a Ziploc bag, used it at least 4 times to clean the bugs off my face shield, thanks again to Beefy for that tip.
Bonneville ran like a champ, not one issue on the road. I tried to maintain an actual speed of 110 to 115 km/h by the GPS whenever possible. This was about 120 to 130 km/h indicated on my speedo. Gas mileage was just a little over 60 mpg (IMP) after correcting for my odometer reading about 3% high, that’s a little over 50mpg (US).
Rear tire had 3.5mm of tread on departure, 2.2 mm when measured the next day.
‘Go Cruise’ throttle control worked great, used it for about a third of the trip.
The highway pegs/bar I fabricated and attached to the bottom of my SW-Motech engine bars were not useful at all. Worse than not useful in fact, the one time I tried them a got cramps in both legs when I moved them back down to the normal position.
GPS worked fine until it lost power from hitting the ridges across the top of Toronto.
Had to tighten the chain the next day, strip her of touring luggage and tool kit, remove the highway pegs/bar, wash her up and she’s back to being my daily driver. Looks great after polishing with a microfiber cloth that has been lightly sprayed with Lemon Pledge, thanks for that tip folks.
The worst part of the trip was the stretch across the top of Toronto and Mississauga. Travelling East at midday there was about an hour of stop & go, really felt like doing some lane splitting but wasn’t sure how the locals would view it, lost some time and used a lot of stamina. Coming back at midnight the highway was packed and the flow of traffic was very fast, 120 – 130 km/h in the slow lane, and very bumpy with joints or ridges or whatever they are. Difficult to see and prepare for in the dark at speed, several literally knocked the wind out of me. There were cars and bike whizzing by and doing rapid lane changes at what seemed 100 mph.
Do it again? Probably not, even on one of the longest days of the year there was too much very dangerous night driving, perhaps if I was to have the first fill up at around 4:30 am and slide across the top of T.O. at dusk, it would have worked out better, but I felt that the extra sleep was more important.
What disappointed me somewhat was that I was looking forward to the time by myself to think about life a little, reminisce and philosophize and so on, however the ride required so much intense focus and concentration that I had almost no ‘personal’ time. Just riding my Bonneville, but that’s what the trip was really about anyway.
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